Want To Print Money, Nintendo? Make A Super Smash Bros. Anime

The most exciting part of yesterday's Nintendo E3 presentations? Not the Reggie vs. Iwata live-action fight, nor the Palutena or Pac-Man reveals. It was the super-cool anime-styled cartoon near the end of the broadcast. Everyone watching it probably thought the same thing at the same time: "Why doesn't this thing actually exist?"

The cartoon clip opened up with Link and Pit throwing down on the Kid Icarus character's home turf. And even though characters from lots of non-Nintendo games have a history of showing up in Smash titles, the legal nightmare of obtaining usage rights for them would probably prevent guests like Snake or Sonic from ever showing up if an anime based on the franchise ever got made. That said, a Smash Bros. anime that only had Nintendo characters could potentially be great on its merits.

Comments

While those of us who are more open minded about it don't give two toss, some would even embrace it with open arms, truth is a gender swap would only alienate what I'd guess is a non-insignificant portion of the audience. Also imo, it's actually the lazy way out for a playable female character in the Zelda series. The smarter option would be to do a role swap between Link and Zelda.

While lore says otherwise, for all intents purposes Link and Zelda are the same characters in each and every game and a lot of people view it that way. Also personally, I like the fact that Link is a male who isn't a classic bulked up, masculine knight. That in itself is just a representative, inclusive and important as having a female protagonist.

There were a whole bunch of animated Kid Icarus stuff on the 3DS eShop and I'm pretty sure one of the animation companies that did those worked on the Smash short. So Nintendo has background on this already and I would be so keen on seeing more of it. Maybe when the 3DS Smash gets released?

I loved those shorts. Well of the four of them I think I liked two the most, the others were a little off. But the one where Palutena was making the soup and the vegetables went crazy, that one was the best. Perfectly Saturday Morning. Would watch the shit out of a series of that :P

I was thinking something similar to this, I own a few series of anime in legitimate mediums but I do have more via torrents that I didn't pay for. This idea will make money sure but I wouldn't go so far to say it "Prints money".

I sub, too. Given the ludicrous prices of disc based anime, I couldn't blame people. But now, they need to get their shit together. It seems to be working more or less. Just like with PC gaming. The problem was supply side, not consumer side.

A series of shorts about 2-3 minutes presented once a fortnight or once a month. Though only availableto view until the next short within Super Smash Bros WiiU itself. Then sell the collection in DVD/Blu-ray form. This would keep players going back to Super Smash at least once a month and have a marketable product at the end. If there is a final longer episode that ties all the battles together it would make owning the DVD all the more reasonable to see the full story,

Its not so much about "printing money," but it could be a really great way to establish & build your brand. Look at what the Pokemon cartoon did! I too reckon the Kid Icarus world is perfect for a cartoon series. That single 3DS game is bursting to the brim with fantastic characters.
I don't think a Smash Bros cartoon would really wok, because... well, Nintendo doesn't like Mario, DK, Link, Kirby etc. to speak. Like, ever.

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